Customer Reviews

The sound of mid 70s roots reggae - By: Magic Rat, 14 Aug 2007
Heard all over the pubs & gig venues of the UKin the punk era, Big Youth's signature album is this one. Lighterin feel & sound than one might expect, containing an intoxicating mix of bass lines & subtle cymbal work plus that trebly, vibrating keyboard sound so lovedin later days of Lee "Sratch" Perry & his Ark Studios artists (notably used on "Police And Theives" by Junior Murvin). Big Youth viertually narrates his thoughts over the top of this beat - more political than religious, often bemoaning the lot of the urban Jamaicanin the mid 1970s. The Youth is not without humour though, as exemplified on the lilting, delightful "Natty Dread She Want".

Although this album is not quite the dub-heavy, speaker shaking stuff of the late 70s, it is a perfect example of where Jamaican roots music was headingin the mid 1970s. It doesn't get much better than this if you are looking to expand your collection by cherry picking iconic albums. You can't go far wrong with "Dreadlocks Dread".